I felt it proper and right that I at least post once more before 2011 is finished.
I wanted to share some big news for EMC Support Forums. On December 23rd we launched the EMC Support Community Ask the Expert Series.
The Series will be events where EMC product experts will host dedicated hot support discussion topics on the Support Forums . The Introductory video is done by me (explains a bit more) and can be seen here: http://community.emc.com/videos/2506
This will be a big program for the Support Forums at EMC in 2012.
I wanted to give a great shout out for @mjbrender, @sthulin and Mike Chelotti of EMC for helping get the taster/ teaser video out as quickly as they did. It was great work. See the video here: https://community.emc.com/videos/2499
It's exciting stuff and will enhance the experience of the EMC Support Community. Keep an eye out for the events as they are scheduled in 2012, it will be informative and fun. Also in 2012 we will be revamping the Most Valuable Player Program for the EMC Support Forums. It is now no longer a competition for the status. It will be a recognition of those who steadfastly help the Support Community in EMC by answering their questions and contributing content to the Support Forums. We intend to recognize more people with this status, expanding the program. With recognition will come benefits for those people. It's still in the creation phase but in the early weeks of 2012 we will be wrapping that up and getting it rolled out to the Community as soon as possible.
I can't believe 2011 is almost over. the Year flew for me. It was hectically busy with highs and lows and creamy middles :) It was a huge year for EMC. 2012 promises to be very challenging, but I am really looking forward to it. With the news above shared all that's left for me to say is Happy New Year and thanks for reading my blog. I am still learning the ropes from a blogging perspective. It's been fun. Stay safe, be well have a great holiday, whatever is left of it :)
The Bayside Chronicle: Thoughts and musings on topics I like. Written in Bantry Bay, Ireland, mostly, or wherever I happen to be.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
EMC Community Support Forums: recognition of our Community champions
My role in EMC is changing. That's not what I am blogging about though. It's about what EMC eServices are doing to recognize, empower and reward our most valuable contributors in the Support Forums. Now it's not like we have not been doing this already. We have. And we have even got them together to talk about what it's like to be a champion in the Support Forums. See here: Meet the Support Forums MVPs
But we are expanding the program to include more people and recognize those that are the superheroes in the Forums. Nothing as yet is set in stone. But here are some ideas around what it will entail. Such people would be recognized and empowered. We would highlight them, give them a voice via blogging, vlogs as well as traditional discussions. We would reward these people with early beta release testing rights, educational credits, access to exclusive groups with other MVP's and developers. We would invite these individuals to EMC events in their local areas. We would ask such individuals to participate in our Ask the Expert program, answering questions from other customers in a special live events and online.
It's cool this is shaping up. And it's great that EMC is bringing a sharper focus to the Support Forums, recognizing the people who make it such a great and powerful community. And I am absolutely fired up that I am a part of making it happen. In the coming weeks I will have more about this and what it entails. And it won't just be about customers. This will include employees of EMC too in all areas. Pat Gelsinger described EMC, shortly after he joined the company, as extremely customer focused. How very true. It's my intention to advocate the Support Forums as a communication channel to all people working in EMC who communicate with customers. Which is as Pat Gelsinger says, all of us.
But we are expanding the program to include more people and recognize those that are the superheroes in the Forums. Nothing as yet is set in stone. But here are some ideas around what it will entail. Such people would be recognized and empowered. We would highlight them, give them a voice via blogging, vlogs as well as traditional discussions. We would reward these people with early beta release testing rights, educational credits, access to exclusive groups with other MVP's and developers. We would invite these individuals to EMC events in their local areas. We would ask such individuals to participate in our Ask the Expert program, answering questions from other customers in a special live events and online.
It's cool this is shaping up. And it's great that EMC is bringing a sharper focus to the Support Forums, recognizing the people who make it such a great and powerful community. And I am absolutely fired up that I am a part of making it happen. In the coming weeks I will have more about this and what it entails. And it won't just be about customers. This will include employees of EMC too in all areas. Pat Gelsinger described EMC, shortly after he joined the company, as extremely customer focused. How very true. It's my intention to advocate the Support Forums as a communication channel to all people working in EMC who communicate with customers. Which is as Pat Gelsinger says, all of us.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Thank you Steve Jobs!
It was through the traditional Medium of the wireless radio while driving at 9am this morning in West Cork that I heard the awfully sad news of Steve Jobs passing. We have lost a luminary to be sure. I was never fortunate enough to meet the man. But I am an ex Digital Equipment Corporation Employee. You can't have worked there and not have heard of him and the legendary story of the mouse.
He certainly revolutionized technology and changed our lives. I am late to Apple technology, but when I bought the iPad I am writing this blog post on I got the experience. The staff talked about how Steve liked to make things simple and elegant right down to the packaging. The staff there revered the guy, it was extraordinary to hear a CEO being talked about by staff at a store. But that's Apple. The Apple that Steve Jobs built.
I am sure the staff there are in bits at the news. He will be missed by the world, but most especially by his family. My deepest sympathies goes to to them.
Forbes have put together this tribute video (linked below) to honor Steve Jobs. It includes EMC's own Howard Elias speaking about him.
Thank you Steve Jobs for all you have done for technology and the people that it helped and continues to do so.
He certainly revolutionized technology and changed our lives. I am late to Apple technology, but when I bought the iPad I am writing this blog post on I got the experience. The staff talked about how Steve liked to make things simple and elegant right down to the packaging. The staff there revered the guy, it was extraordinary to hear a CEO being talked about by staff at a store. But that's Apple. The Apple that Steve Jobs built.
I am sure the staff there are in bits at the news. He will be missed by the world, but most especially by his family. My deepest sympathies goes to to them.
Forbes have put together this tribute video (linked below) to honor Steve Jobs. It includes EMC's own Howard Elias speaking about him.
Thank you Steve Jobs for all you have done for technology and the people that it helped and continues to do so.
Monday, 3 October 2011
EMC Support’s evolution in Social Media.. A lot done, a lot more to do !
It’s been a hectic September for eServices. We have been extremely busy with our recent platform upgrade on ECN. Now that is settling in and people are seeing the benefits (and yes those niggling issues, but we’ll get them settled very quickly). As well as addressing a lot of bugs it brings nice features to your discussions. Highlighting / embedding the answer in discussions, making it easier to mark questions as answered with one click. Other major abilities we have are Ideation and Videos. They were there before the upgrade, but with the improvements we will be using these features in the Support Forums to broaden the experience and sharing of solutions and knowledge.
As a distraction from testing the platform during the upgrade, I took time out to read Why Social Media is disruptive
It was a fascinating read. The referred article was written in February of this year. What was especially interesting was the “Social Media Case Study: Inspired by Dell”. Now it is obvious that Dell is a rags to riches story in this case. But it is interesting to see how Dell got personally involved and listened to its customers socially. It is clearly apparent that social listening is absolutely required from a Customer Support perspective. Dells efforts are well highlighted and I take my hat off to them for a job well done.
EMC is coming from a different place. But what is common to Dell’s requirements (and practically all other businesses out there in Social) is the need to get personally involved. Social Media is a good disruption as it challenges us to integrate more with our customers. EMC is certainly getting that right. In our Support Forums, not only are we opening up content, we are opening up our engagement. This broadens out to other Social channels too.
For instance @EMCsupport on twitter listens and shares information on trending topics in our Support Forums. Over time this will grow to sharing other initiatives like featured blogs and videos on the Support Forums, related to trending EMC Support topics. We are developing a plan to share video solutions for trending Support problems our customers are having. The idea here is to quickly share the workaround to a known issue, and get it published to our Forums video section. (YouTube is also being considered for this also). We can then share this via Twitter, Facebook, Google + and other Social channels. Our own social listening from a Support perspective is still developing. There is a lot more to do to improve and build further engagement. We will be providing that by widening our Forums to Multilingual geographies with Multilingual Support Forums very soon.
There are many other exciting initiatives underway. But essentially it comes down to customer engagement, listening, getting personally involved, and of course being relevant. A lot done, a lot more to do!
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Continuous improvement in Customer Support
It's been a hectic month of August for me, which bucks against the trend of what should be a quiet time. But in these times we live in and with the frenetic pace of the 21st century, if you're involved with Customer Support, you're always busy. A good compliant :)
A colleague of mine Alan Walsh talked about the challenges he and his team mates face in meeting the challenges of Customer Support in the face of rapid IT Transformation :
" It is our role as service account professionals to make sure that we provide real-time information (now in an even more convenient manner) that allows our customers to run their businesses successfully – regardless of where they are geographically, and irrespective of the tool we use to communicate." See the whole post here: http://bit.ly/pj1ux4
Well Alan will be glad to know that the EMC eServices organization strive to do just that. And we are continually working to improve the Customer Support experience. We are working on opening up the Support Forums Communities. (we're nearing completion of this).
We're not resting on our laurels either. There is much to be done to improve the Support Forums experience and who better to consult on this than our own Community (Customers and Partners). Right now we have a survey on improving the user experience.
Find out more here: http://bit.ly/qCbQJX .
If you want to participate, get in quickly. The survey closes on August 30th at midnight (PDT). Which is some ungodly hour of a Monday morning (GMT) :).
As mentioned before we are going to provide Multi-Lingual Support Forums. We are very near to Asian Language ones to start with, which is cool.
And to Alan's point about which tools we use to communicate?
Well we have a Twitter account @EMCsupport which listens out for customers / potential customers requiring Customer Service / Technical Support. Just recently we have started sharing topics on Support Forums. These are discussions that are answered and trending as popular in the Support Forums.
Follow us on twitter and know this is yet another Support Channel for you which listens and shares.
Well as I said, hectic times. More on the ever improving Support Forums... when I get a minute :)
A colleague of mine Alan Walsh talked about the challenges he and his team mates face in meeting the challenges of Customer Support in the face of rapid IT Transformation :
" It is our role as service account professionals to make sure that we provide real-time information (now in an even more convenient manner) that allows our customers to run their businesses successfully – regardless of where they are geographically, and irrespective of the tool we use to communicate." See the whole post here: http://bit.ly/pj1ux4
Well Alan will be glad to know that the EMC eServices organization strive to do just that. And we are continually working to improve the Customer Support experience. We are working on opening up the Support Forums Communities. (we're nearing completion of this).
We're not resting on our laurels either. There is much to be done to improve the Support Forums experience and who better to consult on this than our own Community (Customers and Partners). Right now we have a survey on improving the user experience.
Find out more here: http://bit.ly/qCbQJX .
If you want to participate, get in quickly. The survey closes on August 30th at midnight (PDT). Which is some ungodly hour of a Monday morning (GMT) :).
As mentioned before we are going to provide Multi-Lingual Support Forums. We are very near to Asian Language ones to start with, which is cool.
And to Alan's point about which tools we use to communicate?
Well we have a Twitter account @EMCsupport which listens out for customers / potential customers requiring Customer Service / Technical Support. Just recently we have started sharing topics on Support Forums. These are discussions that are answered and trending as popular in the Support Forums.
Follow us on twitter and know this is yet another Support Channel for you which listens and shares.
Well as I said, hectic times. More on the ever improving Support Forums... when I get a minute :)
Friday, 5 August 2011
A shock to the System: Customer Support is Marketing
I've been doing some research relating to our eServices organization at EMC. It does not hurt to look around at what others might recommend. And I'm really glad I did. I found this http://bit.ly/OaCG5 on the Consortium for Service Innovation website. It was written back in 2006 and certainly it makes good reading from the perspective of what EMC did that this paper was recommending.
This really stood out to me from it: “The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of "people" for its furtherance—these are what may make a vast, complex, ever-growing, ever-changing, evermore specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.” – J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1954
It's an "duh, of course!" moment when you look at Community engagement and Support in general. Gone are the days where a Support organization does everything for the Customer or even knows all that can be done with it's own products. It's no secret that EMC has Customers who are highly knowledgeable about our products, even more so than our own Engineers. That's because they are on the front line, mixing our products in real production solutions. Luckily EMC eats it's own dog food, in that we use our own products and face similar challenges our Customers face in Production. So we share our Customers experiences. Our Support Forums and the ECN Community overall has the vibrancy of the "human community" that Oppenheimer was talking about. But what stands out about ECN is the Support centric engagement across it.
I was notified about this blog post by Jeremiah Owyang (via a colleague in Marketing :) ) : http://bit.ly/qLx8HN. It brilliantly covers the requirements we have today for Customer Support engagement, and offers a 5 tier strategy for Social Support.. Worth a read and a listen to the included video.One thing that Jeremiah said stuck out to me as horrifying, but is absolutely true: "Support is Marketing". I almost screamed and ran to the shower to scrub my self down :) .
I'll be honest in my past life as a support engineer I had no love of marketing. In my experience marketing and support were always at logger heads. Marketing made the pitch and got the glory while Support was left to pick up the pieces. And those of you who have had the experience of the "Marketing web site" that's marketing owned. Guess what, in nearly all cases of a Marketing website, 85% to 95% of it's traffic is related to seeking some type of Support! That's a fact when it comes to measuring EMC's Powerlink website traffic.
But Jeremiah is spot on, Support is Marketing today. It's a brand differentiation. EMC has it. Hell even Marketing people realizing this are horrified I am sure:) . But the tide is changing. And so are roles and our definition of ourselves. I'm quite happy to see myself in a marketing capacity, when it comes to talking about eServices Support and superior branding due to Support.
Marketing and Support have to engage with each other to move forward. Rest assured it's happening in EMC. Most times it's somewhat subconsciously. We are focused on our Customers. We have to keep the marketing and support relationship strong. Because no matter where marketing decides to engage, Facebook, Linked In, Twitter etc, they have to be ready for that customer complaint or query for help with the product. Without the support presence and the required processes the brand could suffer untold damage. That's my €0.2 cent anyway!
This really stood out to me from it: “The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of "people" for its furtherance—these are what may make a vast, complex, ever-growing, ever-changing, evermore specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.” – J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1954
It's an "duh, of course!" moment when you look at Community engagement and Support in general. Gone are the days where a Support organization does everything for the Customer or even knows all that can be done with it's own products. It's no secret that EMC has Customers who are highly knowledgeable about our products, even more so than our own Engineers. That's because they are on the front line, mixing our products in real production solutions. Luckily EMC eats it's own dog food, in that we use our own products and face similar challenges our Customers face in Production. So we share our Customers experiences. Our Support Forums and the ECN Community overall has the vibrancy of the "human community" that Oppenheimer was talking about. But what stands out about ECN is the Support centric engagement across it.
I was notified about this blog post by Jeremiah Owyang (via a colleague in Marketing :) ) : http://bit.ly/qLx8HN. It brilliantly covers the requirements we have today for Customer Support engagement, and offers a 5 tier strategy for Social Support.. Worth a read and a listen to the included video.One thing that Jeremiah said stuck out to me as horrifying, but is absolutely true: "Support is Marketing". I almost screamed and ran to the shower to scrub my self down :) .
I'll be honest in my past life as a support engineer I had no love of marketing. In my experience marketing and support were always at logger heads. Marketing made the pitch and got the glory while Support was left to pick up the pieces. And those of you who have had the experience of the "Marketing web site" that's marketing owned. Guess what, in nearly all cases of a Marketing website, 85% to 95% of it's traffic is related to seeking some type of Support! That's a fact when it comes to measuring EMC's Powerlink website traffic.
But Jeremiah is spot on, Support is Marketing today. It's a brand differentiation. EMC has it. Hell even Marketing people realizing this are horrified I am sure:) . But the tide is changing. And so are roles and our definition of ourselves. I'm quite happy to see myself in a marketing capacity, when it comes to talking about eServices Support and superior branding due to Support.
Marketing and Support have to engage with each other to move forward. Rest assured it's happening in EMC. Most times it's somewhat subconsciously. We are focused on our Customers. We have to keep the marketing and support relationship strong. Because no matter where marketing decides to engage, Facebook, Linked In, Twitter etc, they have to be ready for that customer complaint or query for help with the product. Without the support presence and the required processes the brand could suffer untold damage. That's my €0.2 cent anyway!
Monday, 25 July 2011
What's awesome about EMC Support?
I wanted to talk about the EMC Support organization. Not just my end of the Support Forums, but the whole Support organization in EMC. Before I go on, I must disclose that I come from this organization in that I once was Support Engineer in EMC. Customer Support has been my career over the last 15 years in a number of multinationals.
Support is considered a dirty word, isn't it? It's true, who enjoys calling up for Support on their products, regardless of what they are. From a mobile phone to washing machines no one likes doing it. But someone has to :)
EMC Support is award winning. We have achieved numerous SSPA awards. Now I could talk about our great tools our focus on Total Customer experience or Live Chat, etc. But we all know that tools are just that, tools! It's the people who do Support that lead to these awards. And yet Sales and Marketing only seem to laud Support Services when they win awards. The fact is EMC's Support Services excellence is completely down to the Service Personnel behind it. These people have the most intimate relationships with our customers because they are there to help customers in pain, solving problems. Support is there, 7 X 24, 365 days a year. Support People are there long after Sales and Marketing have moved on to other potential customers. And I know I 'm biased but the Support People in EMC are dedicated, excellent and second to none. They get very little kudos in EMC for what they do. These people are the brand differentiators for EMC in my view. These people hold up the brand of our Service Support. So I wanted to show them a little appreciation. (Very Subtle I know ;) )
These day's don't you think that Twitter is oversubscribed for Marketing? I certainly do. I would like to see more from Support people and organizations. But Still, things like this EMC engineer's work @sthulin (and yes he is a friend of mine) give me encouragement about Support engagement socially. Check out his latest blog post in relation to EMC's Celerra and MAC OS X 10.7.
Support is considered a dirty word, isn't it? It's true, who enjoys calling up for Support on their products, regardless of what they are. From a mobile phone to washing machines no one likes doing it. But someone has to :)
EMC Support is award winning. We have achieved numerous SSPA awards. Now I could talk about our great tools our focus on Total Customer experience or Live Chat, etc. But we all know that tools are just that, tools! It's the people who do Support that lead to these awards. And yet Sales and Marketing only seem to laud Support Services when they win awards. The fact is EMC's Support Services excellence is completely down to the Service Personnel behind it. These people have the most intimate relationships with our customers because they are there to help customers in pain, solving problems. Support is there, 7 X 24, 365 days a year. Support People are there long after Sales and Marketing have moved on to other potential customers. And I know I 'm biased but the Support People in EMC are dedicated, excellent and second to none. They get very little kudos in EMC for what they do. These people are the brand differentiators for EMC in my view. These people hold up the brand of our Service Support. So I wanted to show them a little appreciation. (Very Subtle I know ;) )
These day's don't you think that Twitter is oversubscribed for Marketing? I certainly do. I would like to see more from Support people and organizations. But Still, things like this EMC engineer's work @sthulin (and yes he is a friend of mine) give me encouragement about Support engagement socially. Check out his latest blog post in relation to EMC's Celerra and MAC OS X 10.7.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Digital Life, the Digital Universe and Digital everything!
I returned to work this week. As it's a short week I stuck to working from home. But wow since I 've been off EMC has been busy! More on that in a a paragraph or so.
It's my belief that a proper break from work is 8 weeks. That way those colleagues sending you email with a job to do will give up on you and find someone else to do it. 2 weeks... they wait. It makes me laugh too. I had a couple or urgent requests for me to fulfill. Convenient they could wait for my return to do them and then hound me to get it done. If it could wait two weeks for me it was not urgent! I dislike intensely the misuse of the word "urgent" like that.
I also dislike email intensely and cheer it's coming demise. I urge you all to read MG Sieglers post on TechCrunch entitled I'm Quitting Email. I participated in a break from email with @thelaurenfiles last night. It was easier exercise for me though as I was too caught up in getting my two kids to bed :) But I'm going to keep up the campaign and ween myself off email as much as I possibly can.
Last week IDC released "the 2011 IDC Digital universe study" sponsored by EMC. The study is staggering with the amount of data being talked about. 1.8 zettabytes will be created by the world in 2011. How much is 1.8 zettabytes? It would take every person in Ireland tweeting 3 times per minute for 2,082,203 years! That's a lot of data to manage!
EMC also released a very cool video about EMC's Social Media engagement for EMC employees. I think it's really cool that EMC encourages and supports all of it's employees to engage in Social channels.
One thing the video did not address in detail is our Support Communities.
Now I am biased because it's related to the work I do.
But to me EMC's Support is an immense part of the EMC brand. It's not just our amazing products that give us the edge on our competitors, IMHO, its also the Support we provide.
EMC is a leader in Supporting it's customers. On the EMC Community Network our Support Communities are a vibrant area. We have Customer to Customer interactions, helping each other out with Support issues. Our Partners and employees engage in here too, answering technical questions and solving problems online and collaboratively.
EMC also have a Support Pool of not only Technical Support Forums, but a Knowledgebase and White Papers. Not only that but we have a very successful CHAT tool that allows customers to Chat with Technical engineers about their issues. The Services organization (which I work for) continue to strive to improve Customers experience of eServices and Support. Support is extremely social in EMC. And we are continuously improving our Support Portal to the benefit of customers, Partners and employees. It's a passionate community. One I am very impassioned about myself. And let us not forget the Developer Community on ECN. A very vibrant community too where you can obtain sample codes and technical resources to develop your own solutions on EMC products. From a Support perspective ECN is a cool place. Drop by. And yes if you are following my blog we are still proceed to getting the Forums opened up to web search. It's going well.
Well enough said for now. That's my Friday musings done. Have a good weekend.
It's my belief that a proper break from work is 8 weeks. That way those colleagues sending you email with a job to do will give up on you and find someone else to do it. 2 weeks... they wait. It makes me laugh too. I had a couple or urgent requests for me to fulfill. Convenient they could wait for my return to do them and then hound me to get it done. If it could wait two weeks for me it was not urgent! I dislike intensely the misuse of the word "urgent" like that.
I also dislike email intensely and cheer it's coming demise. I urge you all to read MG Sieglers post on TechCrunch entitled I'm Quitting Email. I participated in a break from email with @thelaurenfiles last night. It was easier exercise for me though as I was too caught up in getting my two kids to bed :) But I'm going to keep up the campaign and ween myself off email as much as I possibly can.
Last week IDC released "the 2011 IDC Digital universe study" sponsored by EMC. The study is staggering with the amount of data being talked about. 1.8 zettabytes will be created by the world in 2011. How much is 1.8 zettabytes? It would take every person in Ireland tweeting 3 times per minute for 2,082,203 years! That's a lot of data to manage!
EMC also released a very cool video about EMC's Social Media engagement for EMC employees. I think it's really cool that EMC encourages and supports all of it's employees to engage in Social channels.
One thing the video did not address in detail is our Support Communities.
Now I am biased because it's related to the work I do.
But to me EMC's Support is an immense part of the EMC brand. It's not just our amazing products that give us the edge on our competitors, IMHO, its also the Support we provide.
EMC is a leader in Supporting it's customers. On the EMC Community Network our Support Communities are a vibrant area. We have Customer to Customer interactions, helping each other out with Support issues. Our Partners and employees engage in here too, answering technical questions and solving problems online and collaboratively.
EMC also have a Support Pool of not only Technical Support Forums, but a Knowledgebase and White Papers. Not only that but we have a very successful CHAT tool that allows customers to Chat with Technical engineers about their issues. The Services organization (which I work for) continue to strive to improve Customers experience of eServices and Support. Support is extremely social in EMC. And we are continuously improving our Support Portal to the benefit of customers, Partners and employees. It's a passionate community. One I am very impassioned about myself. And let us not forget the Developer Community on ECN. A very vibrant community too where you can obtain sample codes and technical resources to develop your own solutions on EMC products. From a Support perspective ECN is a cool place. Drop by. And yes if you are following my blog we are still proceed to getting the Forums opened up to web search. It's going well.
Well enough said for now. That's my Friday musings done. Have a good weekend.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Reflecting on Social Media for Small / Medium businesses
Yesterday I attended the West Cork Social Media for Business conference.
It was the fist Social Media event I have attended in my own back yard. I got to attend as I won a ticket via a twitter competition the hosts held. I was attending for my own interests, not necessarily EMC's. Given the continuing sovereign debt tied to banking debt recession we are experiencing in Ireland, it's all doom and gloom in business news. But I knew that Irish businesses were having successes due in part to Social engagement. So I wanted to see how this was being put out at this conference. As usual with such events it was full of surprises for me and from EMC's SMB perspective.
As I am writing this blog post, I have deigned to use my laptop instead of my iPad. I was a bit Ipadded out from the frenetic use of it via twitter mostly yesterday. I am sitting in a yet unpainted and un-floored or furnished room that is to be my home office for the moment. Essentially this is a start up. Not unlike any new or established business that is starting out in Social Media. The thoughts of painting this room are unpleasant. I personally hate painting. Anyway, contemplating decorating and preparing my office is not too far away from a business starting up in Social Media. It can be daunting. And if you are new to it, doubly so.
But with a bit of perspective it need not be. First you are not alone. There are plenty of businesses doing it already, from sole traders to online media companies any everybody in between. There are also plenty of businesses that can help you out to get started. Check out the twitter traffic from yesterday's event to get some good nuggets of what's available and what you can do.
Bill Liao's (@liaonet) keynote was a fantastic run through of what you can achieve. And from the perspective of the unpainted office / start up Bill enthused about painting your canvass by telling your story. The Irish are world renowned for story telling as Bill said and Social Media is the canvass to tell it. He also stated that being authentic, funny and completely honest was crucial to be successful. And that buzz is especially important. I agree and I was heartened to see that EMC had been doing this. Yes EMC did a campaign for it's mega launch of VNX and VNXe like an SMB should. It even got us First Place for Social marketing from B2B online
In any event a key take away for me was understanding small and medium businesses and more importantly the people behind them. 150 attendees / business owners took the time out to attend a Social Media conference. That says something for West Cork Irish businesses. Ireland being the fourth largest user of Social Media in the World (for such a small population) tells another story which is yet unfinished. I hope to see Ireland have a resurgence in business and with a story telling heritage like ours and an a phenomenal adoption rate to Social channels, businesses here have a great life line. They just need the courage to grab it.
For EMC, we need to be cognizant that our new market in the SMB is full of amazing individual stories. As Bill Liao said, even if you are plumber living and doing business in Skibereen only, you are still a global business with global customers. I think EMC has a handle on that, and is doing a lot more work to get to know these customers. I certainly learned a lot at the conference and as ever meeting twitter people I follow in person was awesome.
It was the fist Social Media event I have attended in my own back yard. I got to attend as I won a ticket via a twitter competition the hosts held. I was attending for my own interests, not necessarily EMC's. Given the continuing sovereign debt tied to banking debt recession we are experiencing in Ireland, it's all doom and gloom in business news. But I knew that Irish businesses were having successes due in part to Social engagement. So I wanted to see how this was being put out at this conference. As usual with such events it was full of surprises for me and from EMC's SMB perspective.
As I am writing this blog post, I have deigned to use my laptop instead of my iPad. I was a bit Ipadded out from the frenetic use of it via twitter mostly yesterday. I am sitting in a yet unpainted and un-floored or furnished room that is to be my home office for the moment. Essentially this is a start up. Not unlike any new or established business that is starting out in Social Media. The thoughts of painting this room are unpleasant. I personally hate painting. Anyway, contemplating decorating and preparing my office is not too far away from a business starting up in Social Media. It can be daunting. And if you are new to it, doubly so.
But with a bit of perspective it need not be. First you are not alone. There are plenty of businesses doing it already, from sole traders to online media companies any everybody in between. There are also plenty of businesses that can help you out to get started. Check out the twitter traffic from yesterday's event to get some good nuggets of what's available and what you can do.
Bill Liao's (@liaonet) keynote was a fantastic run through of what you can achieve. And from the perspective of the unpainted office / start up Bill enthused about painting your canvass by telling your story. The Irish are world renowned for story telling as Bill said and Social Media is the canvass to tell it. He also stated that being authentic, funny and completely honest was crucial to be successful. And that buzz is especially important. I agree and I was heartened to see that EMC had been doing this. Yes EMC did a campaign for it's mega launch of VNX and VNXe like an SMB should. It even got us First Place for Social marketing from B2B online
In any event a key take away for me was understanding small and medium businesses and more importantly the people behind them. 150 attendees / business owners took the time out to attend a Social Media conference. That says something for West Cork Irish businesses. Ireland being the fourth largest user of Social Media in the World (for such a small population) tells another story which is yet unfinished. I hope to see Ireland have a resurgence in business and with a story telling heritage like ours and an a phenomenal adoption rate to Social channels, businesses here have a great life line. They just need the courage to grab it.
For EMC, we need to be cognizant that our new market in the SMB is full of amazing individual stories. As Bill Liao said, even if you are plumber living and doing business in Skibereen only, you are still a global business with global customers. I think EMC has a handle on that, and is doing a lot more work to get to know these customers. I certainly learned a lot at the conference and as ever meeting twitter people I follow in person was awesome.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Late luggage, children who won't sleep and a first birthday
Ah, I love my job. What I do not love is flying coach. It totally sucks. So does British Airways! Thank you so much, British Airways for leaving my bag behind in Heathrow while I was in Boston. And thank you for delivering my suitcase 36 hours later. Nothing makes a 6 am delivery to your hotel room like having your suitcase arrive with every piece of your clothing in it is soaking wet! So yes, flying coach this time was especially unpleasant.
I was in Boston for our eServices all hands town hall. It was amazing and put to rights my travel misery.
Our organization under Julie Larsen's leadership is growing as is our reputation for getting things done. Of course I am stoked about our impending big focus on the Support Forums, including Multilingual Support Forums, web searchable Forum content etc. It's all good, crazy busy. Great complaints, really.Still you take a business trip, and your work piles up . It also doesn't help that I only have three days left before my much needed two week holiday.
Right now my 3 1/2 year old, who won't go to bed is instead helping her mother wrap her brothers birthday presents. My son is 1 tomorrow. A year old already, It's great to see my daughter excited for her brother. Still she should be in bed! And he's chiming in now from his bedroom. He might be hitting his first year, but he's still teething. He's had a lot to deal with in his first year. He was born with a club foot. He has undergone, and is still undergoing orthopedic treatment pioneered by Ignacio Ponseti. He is doing well, with the treatment. His foot is positioned correctly now. And he is nearing walking, which means he will be thoroughly mobile.That will keep us all on our toes.Anyway, more soon. Just updating etc.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Long time no blog post => symptom of EMC World :)
The problem with EMC World is that although you are working your tail off, you are not doing your regular job, hence getting slammed when you return to normality! Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)
Anyway, it's been madness. But not without achievement. First off let me share a personal achievement. I'm a crew member of the Bantry Inshore Search and Rescue Association. http://www.bantrylifeboat.com/
As part of the skills required we have to be assessed for our boating competence. I'm pleased to report I passed my Level 2 boat handling assessment on the 21st May. So I'm qualified to drive a Power Boat. Which might be a relief to some, maybe a worry to others :)
Now on to other stuff. Work wise, we are finalizing the preparations to opening the EMC Community Support Forums. I'm delighted and relieved this is culminating. And I may be biased, but I firmly believe it's going to be a huge success for EMC. For evidence of that, check out our Support Forums MVP meetup at EMC World's Social City. https://community.emc.com/videos/1737.
To continue unbridled self promotion, here is me talking about how EMC eSerivces is changing Support, from a pod cast I did recently.
All of the above in my humble opinion is testimony to the benefits of the Support Forums Community and that opening the Forums will be fantastic!
Now for some humility and thanks to people who we in the Support Forums Community could not have succeeded without. Thanks to Kimberly Greco and Chris Ferdinand of EMC Careers for providing the You Tube podcast. Thanks to EMC'ers Len Devanna, Brace Rennels, Susan Shapiro, Alan Zenreich for giving us the opportunity at Social City and continuing to put up with us on ECN )
And once the Forums are open the bus does not stop. Multilingual Support Forums is moving down the track, another vital part of Social engagement and we are taking on that challenge head on. It's crazy busy, almost overwhelming at times. That's why it's important to pause and take in the distance traveled and the landscape. But not for too long.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Slan Las Vegas!
Well, I am sitting in McCarran Airport awaiting my double leg flight home. I can't wait to see my wife and kids. I have missed them so much. I have been contemplating the last week of EMC World. from the perspective of my role, it was a heck of a lot of fun and extremely rewarding for the Social Comunity I represent. I take my hat off to Len Devanna and his team. The Bloggers Lounge and Social city were a tremendous asset. Particularly I owe a debt of gratitude to Susan Sharpiro, Alan Zenreich and Ray Havey for their stellar support and facilitation of the Support Forums MVP's and Judges meet up.
The value of that panel discussion is continuing and has caught the attention of our marketing team already. Social City has proven the infrastructure and value of online video discussions like these. Don't be surprised by EMC using events like these in the future. I know I will be pushing our team to leverage it for a number of initiatives next quarter.
This is not to to say EMC World ran smoothly for me. I really did not get to blog as much as I wanted to at the event. My laptop just cdid not want to cooperate with me at all. Thankfully I have an iPad now, which I am blogging from right now in fact. If I do get to go to EMC World next year at least accessing the network via mobile devices won't be an issue for me anymore. Another resource hog was the Online Support booth. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that we were very busy talking to customers. It was surprising to meet so many customers who were not aware that we had Support Forums. they were really happy to see them, to be shown how to use them, and delighted they would be opening up soon. It's just a shame that Powerlinmk navigation is so cumbersome. But never fear the next generation of Powerlink. Is in bevta and due for general release very soon. It will certainly put an end to an awful lot of navigation issues for searching for the right content.
Overall, EMC World was a tremendous success. Now roll on my flights home.
The value of that panel discussion is continuing and has caught the attention of our marketing team already. Social City has proven the infrastructure and value of online video discussions like these. Don't be surprised by EMC using events like these in the future. I know I will be pushing our team to leverage it for a number of initiatives next quarter.
This is not to to say EMC World ran smoothly for me. I really did not get to blog as much as I wanted to at the event. My laptop just cdid not want to cooperate with me at all. Thankfully I have an iPad now, which I am blogging from right now in fact. If I do get to go to EMC World next year at least accessing the network via mobile devices won't be an issue for me anymore. Another resource hog was the Online Support booth. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that we were very busy talking to customers. It was surprising to meet so many customers who were not aware that we had Support Forums. they were really happy to see them, to be shown how to use them, and delighted they would be opening up soon. It's just a shame that Powerlinmk navigation is so cumbersome. But never fear the next generation of Powerlink. Is in bevta and due for general release very soon. It will certainly put an end to an awful lot of navigation issues for searching for the right content.
Overall, EMC World was a tremendous success. Now roll on my flights home.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
It's Proven Day today IN EMC World :)
Well, just over half an hour before our Meetup of the ECN Support Forums Most Valuable Players. I still can't get my laptop on the wireless network here, so thanks to @AlanZ of ECN for the loan of his Ipad 2, of which I am rather envious.
All is going superbly well here. On my side of things, we have had tremendous feedback from our customers about the Support Forums. It's nice to meet customers and help them in person. It's been a frenetic pace, but our Team has really engaged our customers. At our booth, in the Solutions Pavilion
Here's what's been happening:
U.S. Trick Shot Pool Champion Chef Anton is dazzling the crowds with his exciting show. Nobody goes away emptyhanded!
Live Demos of the following are being done.
- Live Chat
- Support Forums/Community (my piece of the demo)
- Service Request Management
- Search Support
- Support by Product
- VNXe Unisphere
- Powerlink / Web Support user help and registration.
It's been going down a treat, to say the least. When I get a chance, I'll post photos of the experience. Yesterday was a blast, I got caught for a live interview on EMC TV. Apparently it jarred a colleague to see my Face in huge on the big screen :) Today is our last day at the booth. A lot of people walking around in orange shirts. (EMC Proven Professionals). More Later.. Oh yeah, did I mention, the Fray are playing for us tongiht :) Awesome.
All is going superbly well here. On my side of things, we have had tremendous feedback from our customers about the Support Forums. It's nice to meet customers and help them in person. It's been a frenetic pace, but our Team has really engaged our customers. At our booth, in the Solutions Pavilion
Here's what's been happening:
U.S. Trick Shot Pool Champion Chef Anton is dazzling the crowds with his exciting show. Nobody goes away emptyhanded!
Live Demos of the following are being done.
- Live Chat
- Support Forums/Community (my piece of the demo)
- Service Request Management
- Search Support
- Support by Product
- VNXe Unisphere
- Powerlink / Web Support user help and registration.
It's been going down a treat, to say the least. When I get a chance, I'll post photos of the experience. Yesterday was a blast, I got caught for a live interview on EMC TV. Apparently it jarred a colleague to see my Face in huge on the big screen :) Today is our last day at the booth. A lot of people walking around in orange shirts. (EMC Proven Professionals). More Later.. Oh yeah, did I mention, the Fray are playing for us tongiht :) Awesome.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Taking 5 at the Blogers lounge in Social City
Thanks to @nerdblurt for the loan of his iPad for this post. my laptop refuses to join the wireless network. Rather petulant :).
Anyway brief post to let people know the Support Forums Luncheon was a great success. It was so good to see our Comunity members in person. I got to meet @SandipNanda in person. Seeing him and the other MVPs receive their awards for their contribution was very satisfying. So to our VP Julie Larsen sharing that we are opening the Support Forums and launching multilingual Forums, starting with Chinese and Japanese. What was also shared and I'm delighted to repeat here is the news that the Support Forums MVP program and ECN Experts Program are rolling up to new program that will be focused on the entire ECN Community. More on that will be revealed in time. EMC World continues to be an awesome event and rightfully is making the news for all very good reasons. I've made many new friends and
Caught up with old ones. It's been awesome. More from me later with photos etc, when my laptop decides to behave itself.
Anyway brief post to let people know the Support Forums Luncheon was a great success. It was so good to see our Comunity members in person. I got to meet @SandipNanda in person. Seeing him and the other MVPs receive their awards for their contribution was very satisfying. So to our VP Julie Larsen sharing that we are opening the Support Forums and launching multilingual Forums, starting with Chinese and Japanese. What was also shared and I'm delighted to repeat here is the news that the Support Forums MVP program and ECN Experts Program are rolling up to new program that will be focused on the entire ECN Community. More on that will be revealed in time. EMC World continues to be an awesome event and rightfully is making the news for all very good reasons. I've made many new friends and
Caught up with old ones. It's been awesome. More from me later with photos etc, when my laptop decides to behave itself.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Viva Las Vegas!
Well I'm here! It was an awfully long Journey, not helped by the fact that direct flights from Cork to Vegas do not exist. And so that journey to Heathrow through the gamut of bus changes to get to T5. Then the 10 hour haul, stuck in the middle of the middle on a full flight. Ugh, it was not pretty. Getting used to the time difference now.
Funnily I thought getting through immigration check at Las Vegas airport was reminiscent of Ellis Island :) It was packed and slow going. But it was all good natured. I think everyone on that flight is attending EMC World :)
Anyhow, checking in to the Venetian was crazy following a quick cab ride. Multitudes of people checking in, all seemed to be for this Conference :). Thankfully after settling into my room I caught up with @nerdblurt and crew. It's always good seeing Luigi, every time I meet him he introduces me to someone new who's a Social Media guru or champion. In any event, it's early in Vegas, 8am to be exact. I intend going out and catching the early morning and some exploring. Then in the afternoon I'll be registering and heading in to help setup stuff for EMC World.
It's been a crazy couple of weeks of final planning for our eServices and ECN part of EMC World this year. That with our regular job makes for fun frenetic times.
For my part here is what I will be helping happen from an Event Point of view for EMC World for eServices and ECN.
On Monday, May 9th, from 12:30 - 200pm (PDT) we are hosting EMC Support Forums Luncheon. This will be a luncheon for Community members to meet Network and help us celebrate the ECN Support Forums Most Valuable Payer winners for 2010. http://bit.ly/mpzogp
Along with this I will be in the Solutions Pavilion with my colleagues at the Powerlink/Online Support booth. See the schedule for the Solutions Pavilion here: http://bit.ly/cuYC02
I'll also be at the Bloggers Lounge near Social city from time to time. http://bit.ly/eSJU36
I'll be about, if you're in Vegas or not, follow me on twitter @MabroIRL.
EMC World is a crazy time, networking and meeting peers, making new friends. It's a fabulous event And I'm looking forward to it. Especially sharing the news of opening the EMC Support Forums very soon. Reaction to that just from last night in general chat has been overwhelmingly positive, and the theme of the response is "finally and awesome" in the same breath. So Yee Haw!!! Now to settle my nerves with a walk through Vegas and then this afternoon the real fun begins :)
See you out there! I look forward to meeting you.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
What happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas anymore…
A brilliant tag line for what Social Meida has become and quite literal when it comes to what I'll be doing in Vegas with EMC :)
As well as the Solutions Pavillion, manning our Support Forums booth, we have other major events that are going on and kind of cool. I'm sharing this one now, and keeping the others for later. Rationing my blog material so I don't burn out.
So as you can see above on the right, Social City is happening at EMC World. Part of Social City will be the informal meetups.
Wednesday, May 11th, 10:30 - 11:30 am (PDT): Our Support Forums Competition winners for the Most Valuable Players of 2010, will take part in a panel discussion with the competition judges. They will discuss and take questions about their highlighted experiences on the Support Forums and the overall EMC Community Network. This will be a live video broadcast event , including a Live Q+A session, so those not attending EMC World can participate.
It'll be a fun event and a chance for our Support Forums Community members to network in a live discussion. I'll be sure to share the details of the URL to see the video and live Q+A.
This is going to be awesome and something I've been chomping at the bit to do since last years conference. I''m so happy it's coming altogether. I just had to share. More later ...
Oh and here is a link to the list of meetups happening at Social City: http://bit.ly/inIcZX
Friday, 15 April 2011
Opening up, Why I'm loving my job in the here and now
This week saw me posting an announcement in the EMC Support Forums that I never thought would happen.
In summary the EMC Support Forums will very soon be opening up for public read-only access and search from Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
This is really exciting news for me as a community member of the EMC Support Forums and an employee of EMC.
It's a big step for EMC's Support organization, and I firmly believe it's a big jewel in EMC's Support arsenal.
It's great for the Community too, because it makes an awesome Support Community publicly visible and is bound to garner a lot more members. We know that registrations in ECN approximately trebled when the Support Forums migrated there from Powerlink back in 2009. I firmly believe the number of new registrants will be a lot more than that once we go public.
I'm really excited about this development and no doubt I'll be posting more about it in the coming weeks. It's been a long slog to get to this point, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's going to be a great and busy next few weeks. Good times! :)
In summary the EMC Support Forums will very soon be opening up for public read-only access and search from Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
This is really exciting news for me as a community member of the EMC Support Forums and an employee of EMC.
It's a big step for EMC's Support organization, and I firmly believe it's a big jewel in EMC's Support arsenal.
It's great for the Community too, because it makes an awesome Support Community publicly visible and is bound to garner a lot more members. We know that registrations in ECN approximately trebled when the Support Forums migrated there from Powerlink back in 2009. I firmly believe the number of new registrants will be a lot more than that once we go public.
I'm really excited about this development and no doubt I'll be posting more about it in the coming weeks. It's been a long slog to get to this point, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's going to be a great and busy next few weeks. Good times! :)
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Why I'm delighted to be going to EMC World 2011
Well it's official, my registration is through and I will be attending EMC World in Las Vegas, from May 9th to 12th.
It will be my second time attending this event, and if the last year is anything to go by it will be an intense few days. While I will be leaving my wife to look after our 2 children while I'm away (that part I hate) it will be another opportunity to meet Customers, Partners and EMC'ers who rock in their expertise.
It's particularly good this year as the Support Forums / Community will be highlighted prominently. More on that in the coming weeks. What I can tell you specifically is that we are again highlighting the Most Valuable Players of the EMC Support Forums at a luncheon in their honor. https://community.emc.com/message/539276#539276
For those of you reading this and not registered Powerlink users the following explains the Program::
"The MVP Program recognizes outstanding members of the EMC Support Forums based on their contributions, collaboration and innovative ideas. The Program is designed BY and FOR forum users and is sponsored by EMC Corporation." Winners of the MVP award will receive a conference pass to EMC World, with travel and accommodation expense. What's really cool about this is that it allows people who would not normally attend EMC World to go.
Last year at EMC World, I attended as last minute replacement for my boss who left, but did not go far thankfully :) It was an intense experience and was a baptism of fire in networking, meeting people, collaborating on ideas.
I really got steeped in Social Media, and had many firsts in that setting. My first tweet up, my first meeting with a person I followed on Twitter! My first foray in Four Square and getting badges. It was a great experience. It brought me face to face with EMC Support Forums contributors. People I had worked with on the Forums for the last nine months were greeting me in person. The freaky thing was that had already had our preamble on the Forums, so our first meeting was like catching up with a friend I'd seen last week :) Instantaneous conversation. I also made many new friends and colleagues. It was all new to me. I loved it, and id it really ignited my passion in advocating our Support Forums and Social Media engagement in a Support context.
I look forward to this year's event, I will be attending with my new boss, although he's been my boss for almost a year now so not so new. I also look forward to seeing Vegas. I've never been, all I've seen is what's on TV. A long way from West Cork. It should be blast!
See you there, if you're going :)
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Why Forums are just so cool!
This model was given to me by my best mate in the whole wide World:
It's a model of the German World War II Uboat, the U260, which was scuttled off the Southern Coast of Ireland by her crew in March 1945, I have actually dived the wreck, brilliant dive at 45 meters.
Beyond being a cool gift from my buddy, This model is physical proof how Forums in the Social Media Space help us achieve our goals, with even better results than we expected. Jason, my buddy who built this model , took the time to explore modeling Forums and Uboat forums before he got started and the link below outlines the entire build process he went through with some great advice and help form fellow members of the Forum.
U260 Finished build
Jason put some big efforts in to making it an authentic representation of the type VII C the ship was, including what the ship would have looked like in port, before her fateful journey and demise off the Irish Coast.
It's a cool model, and I love that it's whole creative process is within an online Forum. It makes me smile every time I look at in it's case on the mantelpiece. :)
WIP U-260 Finished Ship Chat
Beyond being a cool gift from my buddy, This model is physical proof how Forums in the Social Media Space help us achieve our goals, with even better results than we expected. Jason, my buddy who built this model , took the time to explore modeling Forums and Uboat forums before he got started and the link below outlines the entire build process he went through with some great advice and help form fellow members of the Forum.
U260 Finished build
Jason put some big efforts in to making it an authentic representation of the type VII C the ship was, including what the ship would have looked like in port, before her fateful journey and demise off the Irish Coast.
It's a cool model, and I love that it's whole creative process is within an online Forum. It makes me smile every time I look at in it's case on the mantelpiece. :)
WIP U-260 Finished Ship Chat
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
My First post in my new Blog
Well my topic for blogging today is my decision to start a blog. Perhaps not very interesting to most but a nervous venture for me. Some reading may be familiar with my tweets via MabroIRL .
That tends to be ranting at Irish economical and political woes,Cloud computing, and Project Management thrown in too.
So why am I blogging? Well in short because i feel I have to, I have been growing my knowledge and participation in the Social Media Space and I thought it was high time I put myself out there in detail. Not for attention per se, I do want to be heard, but I also want to listen. In order to do that I have learned that "participation is the price of admission". Not my own phrase (I picked it up from a guy called Tyler Welch, from Ant's Eye View).
In my employed capacity I am Senior Program Manager & Community Manager for the EMC Community Network (ECN) Support Forums . I have been in this capacity since late 2009. Since taking up this mantle I have thrown myself into the deep end of Social Media. Mostly in the beginning on EMC|ONE, EMC's internal online network for employees. But as a Community Manager I quickly engaged with our Customers, employees and Partners in the ECN Support Forums. What an experience that has been. Our Support Forums Community, is a vibrant one. Sure they talk about issues, problems and technology regarding EMC's products. But the traffic in there is astounding and the Community is just that, a community of people. Beyond the tech side of it, it's a great place to interact with like minded peers.
Throughout this experience I have quickly learned that Social Media is to be ignored at your peril. In fact I can't live without it. Whether it's following breaking news, or even Ireland's recent general election campaign, or organizing to meet up with a friend, I use Social Media. email and phone are slowly becoming quaint. I do realize that Social Media is just a communication channel, it's a new revolution in communication but in the end, communication is what it fundamentally is (but in a very cool way).
My intent in this blog space is to highlight my experiences with Social Media as it continues to grow, be it within EMC (which of course it will) or things I am thinking about trying to do within my own local community in Bantry, where I reside. I hope it will be of use or interest to some who happen along here.
I promise to to get better at blogging, to learn more about blogging best practices and etiquette.
Signing off I feel obliged to to shout out a thanks to the following people for their mentoring and encouragement of me to engage in the Social Media journey. They are, in no particular order, Julie Gibson, Gina Minks, Erich Zirnhelt, Luigi Dankos, Len Devanna & Jim Mullins.
If you think I am a terrible blogger, then blame those people listed above for encouraging me to get into it. :)
Ciao for now.
That tends to be ranting at Irish economical and political woes,Cloud computing, and Project Management thrown in too.
So why am I blogging? Well in short because i feel I have to, I have been growing my knowledge and participation in the Social Media Space and I thought it was high time I put myself out there in detail. Not for attention per se, I do want to be heard, but I also want to listen. In order to do that I have learned that "participation is the price of admission". Not my own phrase (I picked it up from a guy called Tyler Welch, from Ant's Eye View).
In my employed capacity I am Senior Program Manager & Community Manager for the EMC Community Network (ECN) Support Forums . I have been in this capacity since late 2009. Since taking up this mantle I have thrown myself into the deep end of Social Media. Mostly in the beginning on EMC|ONE, EMC's internal online network for employees. But as a Community Manager I quickly engaged with our Customers, employees and Partners in the ECN Support Forums. What an experience that has been. Our Support Forums Community, is a vibrant one. Sure they talk about issues, problems and technology regarding EMC's products. But the traffic in there is astounding and the Community is just that, a community of people. Beyond the tech side of it, it's a great place to interact with like minded peers.
Throughout this experience I have quickly learned that Social Media is to be ignored at your peril. In fact I can't live without it. Whether it's following breaking news, or even Ireland's recent general election campaign, or organizing to meet up with a friend, I use Social Media. email and phone are slowly becoming quaint. I do realize that Social Media is just a communication channel, it's a new revolution in communication but in the end, communication is what it fundamentally is (but in a very cool way).
My intent in this blog space is to highlight my experiences with Social Media as it continues to grow, be it within EMC (which of course it will) or things I am thinking about trying to do within my own local community in Bantry, where I reside. I hope it will be of use or interest to some who happen along here.
I promise to to get better at blogging, to learn more about blogging best practices and etiquette.
Signing off I feel obliged to to shout out a thanks to the following people for their mentoring and encouragement of me to engage in the Social Media journey. They are, in no particular order, Julie Gibson, Gina Minks, Erich Zirnhelt, Luigi Dankos, Len Devanna & Jim Mullins.
If you think I am a terrible blogger, then blame those people listed above for encouraging me to get into it. :)
Ciao for now.
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